User blog:Majora5694/"My honor, my dreams they're yours now."
Joey the other day wrote about a short story on honor and it reminded me of where my honor comes from. I model my honor after the character Zack Fair and Angeal Hewley in Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core, sure he’s not an actual person but when you read what’s to follow you’ll understand. The following is going to be a brief summary of Crisis Core and contains spoilers, if you plan on playing Crisis Core in the future and do not want spoilers then you should stop reading this now. Now then this requires an explanation for what Shinra is and the Lifestream, the Lifestream is the very living essence of the planet FF7 takes place on, it resides within the earth and can sometimes be seen above ground. Without the life stream the plant would become a lifeless rock and no living things could exist. This is how the original game explains it, "Eventually... all humans die. What happens to them after they die? The body decomposes, and returns to the Planet. That much everyone knows. What'' about their consciousness, their hearts and their souls? The soul too returns to the Planet. And not only those of humans, but everything on this Planet. In fact, all living things in the universe, are the same. The spirits that return to the Planet, merge with one another and roam the Planet. They roam, converge, and divide, becoming a swell, called the 'Lifestream'. Lifestream... In other words, a path of energy of the souls roaming the Planet. 'Spirit Energy' is a word that you should never forget. A new life... children are blessed with Spirit energy and are brought into the world. Then, the time comes when they die and once again return to the Planet." Then we come to Shinra, a power electric company that found a way to harvest the Lifestream and convert it into Mako energy which can be used as a much more efficient and cleaner way to power not only everyday appliances but just about everything including vehicles. (Later it would be discovered that this conversion of energy was slowly killing the planet but of course due to greed Shinra continued to do this and not let the public know. Though other researchers found this out and rebelled against them.) Due to this discovery the company Shinra became more than a company, they eventually built the largest city in their world named Midgar which is built on a plate far above the ground, under the plate are the slums and very old buildings. Shinra became the single world power with very little opposition, within their military was a special unit called SOLDIER, each person in this unit underwent an operation that involved getting Mako energy infused in their body, along with something called Jenova cells which was a secret to everyone including the units themselves. (We’ll get into that later.) Within SOLDIER, there are 3 ranks, 3rd class, (the lowest) 2nd class, and 1st class. (The highest) among the 1st class are three unique members that are the best of the rest Genesis Rhapsodos, Angeal Hewley, and the most famous of them all Sephiroth. Angeal and Genesis grew up together and were already best friends, they later would become 1st class SOLDIER’s and became good friends with Sephiroth. While Sephiroth was the famous one, Angeal was the one who often talked about honor, dreams and loyalty. He would often give them both lectures on the subject usually whenever they did something wrong. Now we come to Zack, he came from a small country village with a dream in mind “To become a Hero!” at some point Angeal started to mentor him, not just in ways of combat but in the ways of honor as well. The game opens up during the time Zack is a 2nd class. He seems to always be exited to prove his worth as a SOLDIER and seeks to reach 1st class as his main goal. One day it found out that Genesis went missing while on a mission to a country that still refuses to comply with Shinra called Wutai. It was speculated that Genesis may have deserted because a bunch of 2nd and 3rd classes went missing along with him. Angeal and Zack were then asked to investigate while at the same time taking out an important Wutai base which was crucial to ending the war. During the mission, Angeal shares a story with Zack about his home town and a special fruit that grows there called dumb apples, he and his family were poor and sometimes had to resort to stealing some now and then. “But even then I had my honor. The largest Banora White tree grew on a wealthy man's estate. It was rumored, that those apples tasted the best, but I never stole from that tree, because the wealthy man's son, was my friend..." Zack- "If he was a friend, you shoulda just asked for some!" Angeal- *raises his hand for a moment and smiles* "Honor can be quite a burden ... at times..." not long after that, Zack notices that Angeal never uses the giant sword on his back, he instead ether uses another sword or his fists. “You know I’ve never seen you use that…” Angeal responds with, “Use brings about wear, tear, and rust. And that’s a real waste.” Towards the mission being near finished Zack gets cornered by a large monster used by Wutai troops specifically meant to take out SOLDIER units. Angeal is then forced to use his sword to kill the monster, after this Zack says, “Sorry if your sword got any wear tear or rust on it.” Angeal responds with, “You’re a little more important than my sword… *smiles* but just a little.” Right as the mission was over an unknown enemy attacked, Zack and Angeal separated when this happened and after this Angeal had disappeared, it was then implied that Angeal had deserted just the same as how Genesis did. Zack didn’t believe this for a moment, “Angeal wouldn’t betray us…Never!!!” A few weeks later the pair is still missing, a mission that was originally meant for Sephiroth was passed down to Zack, it involved him going to a village called Banora, Genesis’s home town with a member of the Turk division named Tseng (pronounced the same as the word: Song.), (the Turks were the ones that did all of Shinra’s dirty stuff. Spying, murder, kidnapping…etc.) They were tasked with finding his parents and finding out if they knew anything. Having a Turk go with him made Zack a little uneasy knowing what Turks do but orders were orders. Upon arrival they came across many of the famous Banora white trees that bore the dumb apples. It then finally hit Zack that this was Angeals home town too. “The largest Banora White tree grew on a wealthy man's estate. It was rumored, that those apples tasted the best, but I never stole from that tree, because the wealthy man's son, was my friend..." Zack remember that story and realized that the “wealthy man’s son” was Genesis. Near one of the houses was what seemed to be a recently dug grave, Tseng told Zack to go look for Angeals house while he checked out the grave, when Zack found the house he met Angeals mother. Almost immediately she asked “are you Zack? The puppy?” Zack was a little confused and offended at first but she explained that Angeal had told her that Zack was a fellow SOLDIER and was “as eager and restless as a little puppy.” Zack then noticed that the buster sword was sitting propped up on the other side of the room, he went over to look at it. The mother then said, “That sword represents our family’s dreams honor…” It could now be realized what Angeal had truly meant back on that mission, "Honor can be quite a burden ... at times..." (One could compare the weight and size of the sword to his honor) “Use brings about wear, tear, and rust. And that’s a real waste.” “You’re a little more important than my sword… *smiles* but just a little.” The buster sword at this point in the game can now be seen as far more than a sword, but as a means of protection of honor and dreams. It’s something to keep around at all times no matter the burden, yet to never abuse it and only to it when necessary, the buster sword is the embodiment of honor. Angeals mother then said that he had went off somewhere and left the sword behind for now. Zack walked outside and then received a call on his cell phone from Tseng. He explained to meet him up on a hill near an abandoned factory. When he got there Tseng said the he found Genesis’s parents in the grave and they had appeared to have been killed by Genesis himself. The two enter the factory only to find out it wasn't abandoned. They soon found Genesis in the basement reading a line from a book turned play he loved called Loveless. When asked why he killed his parents he said that they “had always betrayed me from the very beginning. what do you know? Shinra lapdogs!” He then attacked Tseng and knocked him out, Zack drew his sword but out of nowhere Angeal ran in between them and grabbed Zack’s sword from him and pointed it towards Genesis (Angeal has his buster sword on his back now.) Genesis then says, “Very well, I’ll respect your wishes old friend, but…” he walks past him and says in a quiet voice, “can you really live… on THAT side?” as he says this Angeal has a disturbed, painful look on his face. Angeal starts to leave but Zack try’s to stop him and talk, but Angeal pushes him away and sticks the sword he took from him in the floor and walks away. Zack of course follows but during this Tseng calls Zack on his Phone and tells him that they both need to evacuate because it was Shinra’s policy to destroy anything involving evidence of “Company misconduct” in other words the entire town was to be bombed and wiped out altogether. Zack convinces Tseng to delay the bombing so he can try to save Angeals mother, but when he gets into the house he find her dead with Angeal standing near her with his sword drawn and a upset look on his face. Zack runs up to him, grabs him and punches him a few times before throwing him outside. “What the hell did you do Angeal!!? Is that… is that your idea of honor??” he responds “the mother… could not continue to live and neither can the son” Zack if obviously deeply confused, and just then Genesis appears and says “I told you, you can’t live on that side anymore.” Angeal then puts the sword on his back and starts walks away. Zack try’s to follow after him but Genesis trips him, Genesis recites a line from Loveless “My friend, do you fly away now? To a world that abhors you and I? All that awaits you is a somber morrow no matter where the winds may blow” while he says this Zack keeps telling him to shut up, Genesis then uses a summon Materia and tries to kill Zack with it. Of course Zack succeeds in defeating the summoned beast and he asked Genesis “what happened to dreams and honor??” he responds, “We are… monsters…. * a single large black wing sprouts from his left shoulder* we have neither dreams nor honor.” With that he flies away, shortly after Zack was evacuated out and the bombing begins, the town is decimated. After an unknown amount of time, it was announced that the war with Wutai was officially over and because of Zack’s actions being a large part of that, he was prompted to 1st class. Shortly after Zack and Sephiroth were told that Genesis and Angeal have been sighted in one of the Mako reactors within Midgar. Their orders were to search and destroy but Sephiroth told Zack they'd be sure to "fail to eleminate them" which made Zack much happier. Surely enough they find Genesis accompanied by a scientist named Professor Hollander. He claimed that Genesis was “Degrading” and that only he could stop it. Genesis signals for Hollander to run, and Sephiroth does the same to Zack, what happened exactly between Genesis and Sephiroth is unknown. After Zack chases Hollander for a bit, Angeal appears and blocks Zack from getting to Hollander. Zack then asks, “Working for Hollander now? What is it you’re really after?” “World domination.” Angeal says in a mocking tone. “That’s not even funny man!” “How about revenge?” “For what??” Angeal walks forward and suddenly sprouts a white wing from his right shoulder. “I’ve become… a monster, a monsters objective is usually world domination or revenge.” Zack then says, “You’re wrong, those aren’t the wings of a monster.” “Well then what are they?” “Angel’s wings” Angeal looks at his wing, “I see, then what should an angel fight for Zack? What do angels dream of?!!” he sticks the buster sword in the ground. “Angels dream of one thing…” “Please tell me!” “…to be human.” He rushes at Zack giving him a good punch to the stomach which sends him flying across the room. When Zack gets up he puts up his fists ready for a fight, but then he just laughs and puts them down. Angeal yells “defend yourself!” and Zack just smiles and shakes his head. Angeal then punches the ground that sends a shock wave towards Zack, he bears down and gets ready to take it. Instead of the wave hitting him it impacts a grate he was standing on which breaks and he falls through. Zack had actually fallen all the way though the upper plate form that. He woke up in an old church with a young lady standing over him saying “Hellooo?” when he woke he looked at her “Heaven?” he asked, “not quite.” “An angel?” No, I’m Aerith!” she then explained how he had fallen through the roof of the church and scared her. Zack gets up and thanks her for waking him up, he says “hmm, how can I repay you… How about one date?” she responds “that? Don’t be silly.” Zack then looks disappointed that his attempt failed, he starts looking around the church and nearly walks in to a flower patch that was growing in the inside of the church. Aerith get angry and stops him, she had been tending to them for quite some time and didn’t want them ruined. Zack then realizes that Flowers are rare around Midgar and suggests that Aerith sells them, she’ll get money for them and Midgar would be full of flowers. Aerith realizes that that would be a good idea and considers it. Zack then asks if she could show him the way back to the upper plate and the two travel the slums and reach the entrance to the train that goes up to the top. But before leaving, she admits she actually likes being around him and would like to do so again sometime. Zack is called back to the main Shinra building due to an attack by Genesis and his troops. On the way back he sees Angeal. He tells Zack that at times his thoughts seem clouded, and then decides to try working with Zack, “our enemy, is all the creates suffering.” He says, the two go to the Shinra building to confront Genesis and attempt to fight him. By the end of it both Genesis and Angeal disappear once more leaving Zack in the dark. Much later again Zack was on his way to visit Aerith when suddenly Angeal flies down and tells Zack that he knows where Genesis and Hollander is and asked for his help of course he says that he will but he wanted to see Aerith first. As Zack is about to enter the church where Aerith usually is Tseng comes down with a helicopter and says they need to go to a northern village called Modeoheim, for that was where Genesis was. Zack reluctantly boards the vehicle but not before the camera shows a white feather sitting on the step implying that Angeal knows about Aerith. On the way, the helicopter gets caught in a blizzard and crashes into the side of a mountain, Zack, Tseng, and two infantry men survive the crash and the party has no choice but to walk the rest of the way. Zack, accustomed to living out in the country and harsh terrain lead the way. Along the way he notice there was only one of these guys that were able to keep up with him it was an infantryman that soon turned out to be none other than Cloud Strife, the two hit off and almost immediately became friends. Not long later they find a base that’s crawling with Genesis’s troops just on the outside of the town. Zack alone sneaks in and finds Genesis getting ready to kill Hollander but Zack intervenes. Zack notices at this time that Genesis’s hair and skin has turned grey while Hollander says only he can stop the degradation process and only he knew where the Jenova Cells where being kept. Genesis still tries to kill Hollander regardless of course Hollander runs away but Cloud comes as if from nowhere and tries to capture him but Cloud wasn’t able to stop him and began chasing him while Zack fought a long awaited duel with Genesis. By the end both of them were exhausted but Zack was still clearly the victor. Genesis then got up on the railing and said “if this world seeks my destruction… it goes with me.” He then fell back and faded into the dark pit behind him. At that point Zack had assumed Genesis was dead. When Zack exited the building noticed the others were gone and probably went on a head. When he finally caught up with them they had been attacked by Angeal, he was waiting for Zack and Zack alone. When he found him Hollander shows up and it is finally discovered the Angeal had never killed his mother, she had killed herself because of her regret of taking part in the experiments that created both Angeal and Genesis. She had “Jenova cells” injected into her and her own genetic makeup was mapped onto Genesis while he was still in the fetal stage while Angeal was bread inside her body making him the “superior specimen” Genesis developed a degradation issue because of this whenever he used the ability’s given to him by the Jenova cells it would make his body begin to decompose. While Angeal was not only perfect and without degradation. He could also absorb genetic traits and become more powerful from them and also share these traits to other people and creatures. (I know that’s kind of confusing but it’s not that important. xP) Ok it been a long read but we are now nearing the end, if you’ve watched the videos you’ll know that Angeal is now dead and the buster sword now in Zack’s hands. (A minor note, while the game is being played, one can see Zack using the sword properly but Zack later states that he, like Angeal, takes very good care of it. he claims that when it comes to minor situations he only uses the blunt part of the blade) He has now become a commander of sorts for SOLDIER and Cloud is working towards joining SOLDIER. While on vacation in a resort called Costa del Sol, Zack is under watch by a Turk named Cissnei who is also on vacation. One of the days there on the beach a small group of Genesis troops attack and Zack if forced to fight them off with an umbrella. After this Tseng appears and tells Zack that Genesis may not be dead and they needed him in Junon city nearby, which was under attack by Genesis’s troops. When he gets there he learns that there reason for attacking is because Hollander had been imprisoned here and it was likely that they were trying to rescue him. While here Zack by chance runs into Cloud and talks about getting lunch later although Cloud says he didn’t want to think about food at the moment because he gets sick easily from helicopter rides and such. When Zack finally gets to where Hollander was he had already gotten out so the chase was on once again. Hollander gets away in the end carried away by the enemy. Sephiroth shows up and remarks that that failure would go on his permanent record. Zack returns to Midgar in concern for Aerith hearing that Genesis’s troops have been spotted in Midgar. When he arrives he heads over to the old Church, along the way he sees that there are robots made by Shinra to kill monsters in the slums, but for some unknown reason they attack SOLDIER members. When he arrives at the church he sees a dog like creature at first he prepares to attack it but he sees it’s a creature that had its genes copied from Angeal it then see’s one for these monster killing robots preparing to shoot Zack and attacks it After this Aerith askes Zack to get the materials to build a flower wagon to carry out what Zack had suggested before, to sell flowers. When it finally gets made Aerith complains and wants him to make a nicer one. Zack tells her to stop being so picky. “a tiny little wish that’s all.” They’re tiny but you have lots right?” “that’s right! Wanna hear?” “Write em down so I don’t forget.” Just then he gets a call from Sephiroth that he need to return to the Shinra building for a new mission, he reluctantly tells Aerith he has to go but before he leaves he gives him a folded note presumably all the wishes she wanted. When he gets back Sephiroth tell him they’ll be going to a place where they’ll be gone for quite a while. Before leaving he visits Aerith one last time and helps her to sell some of her flowers. Right before leaving Zack finds out that Cloud will be accompanying him. Not only that but the mission to investigate a rector near a village called Nibleheim, which if you remember is Clouds home town. Once there Sephiroth asked Cloud what it felt like to be home, but just then Zack asked Sephiroth “what was your home town like?” he responded, “I have no home town, my mothers Name is Jenova, she died when I was little, my father…*starts laughing weirdly* why am I even talking about this?” Cloud didn’t seem to want anyone to know he was there so he wore his helmet most of the time. They hired a guide to help them get up the mountain to find the reactor. This guide also so happened to be Tifa, Clouds childhood friend. Once they got up there Cloud stayed outside the reactor to guard Tifa as she wasn’t allows inside. This is what follows. After this Genesis leaves and Sephiroth goes to an old mansion that contains knowledge of Jenova. It was once a laboratory of sorts but has been abandoned. Sephiroth reads through all the books in the basement which takes him a full 7 days… and on the 7th day… Sephiroth went mad from what he learned. Here, Sephiroth SOLDIER 1st class is gone, and born was Sephiroth the one winged angel. He burned and killed almost everyone in the village, and when he was done he when back up to the reactor to enter the room Labeled Jenova. When Sephiroth fell he was presumed dead (in the next game it turns out he is alive and become the greatest threat to the world but thats another story.) a scientist named Hojo comes along and finds Zack and Cloud knocked out, he captuerse them both an preforms expiriments on them for a very long time. Much later Zack breaks out along with cloud, Zack is unaffected by the experiments but Cloud is unstable, his mind is messed up, he can hardly move, he can’t speak, and near death. Upon leaving the mansion which is where they were being kept. They are attacked by Shinra troops calling them escaped specimens. Zack defends Cloud and they escape, (At this point one can help remember that company rule about “destroying any evidence of company misconduct.”) Zack remembered that note Aerith gave him, the one about the wishes she had he decided to look at it for he had yet to read it. The note read, “I have 23 tiny wishes, you probably won’t remember them all so I put them all into one: I’d like to spend more time with you” His new goal was to return to Midgar specifically for her and he couldn’t leave his last living friend alone, not when he needed him most so he put Clouds arm over him and pretty much dragged him along. When they arrived at the coast Zack left Cloud in a hidden area so they could rest, Zack walked down to the beach where he encountered the Turk Cissnei who was suprised to find out that one of the exscaped expirenments was him. She reluctantly said that she had to do her job and attacked, Zack defended himself but refused to hurt her. he decided to run saying "next time, I'll really have too..." Zack then returned to Cloud and told him that the Turks were now hunting them but reassued him that they'd be fine. (although Cloud probably didn't understand a word of what he said considering how badly his mental state was in.) But just then Cissnei appered again, Zack drew the buster sword and prepared to fight, this time to the death. But before the fight she see's Cloud and takes pitty on the both of them. Instead of fighting she calls and and says that she's lost her targets. And as one final boon, she give Zack the keys to a Shinra made motercycle with a buit in passenger seat. Much later, Zack see's the dog like being that protected him and Aerith in the church sadly it had died but it had with it a letter from Aerith, it mentioned that she had now sent 89 letters to him and that he had been gone for 4 years. this came as a large suprise to him, he was unaware how long they were kept in that mansion but he now knew. She also said that the flowers were selling very well and that this would be the final letter she would send to him. Upon reading "final letter." Zack yelled to the sky in frustration, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN FINAL??!" The two were finally nearing Midgar, Zack ended up having to hitch hike in the back of an older mans truck, all the while, the new Turks Leader, Tsung found out about Zack being their target he changed the orders for all Turk units, "I want you to find Zack before the millitary does, you are going to save Zacks life." Things were looking up, they were so close Midgar was just around the corner but then... Yes this is where our story ends, an army stood in the way to freedom. Zack could have ran but he didn't, instead he sacrificed himself for Cloud who was starting to recover. He gave all he had in the name of honor, Zack lie in a pool of his own blood thinking of Aerith, before, hoping that she didn't move on from him only now to hoping that she did. But then Cloud came, watching his friend that gave all that he had to give dieing, Zack saw the oppertunity in Cloud right then a way to keep living, a way to see his dreams live on. "for the... both of us." "both of us?" "thats right, your gonna..." "your gonna?" "live... you'll be... my living legacy... my honor, my dreams... they're yours now!" "I'm... your living legacy." The buster sword was then passed on, first from Angeal, then to Zack, and now Cloud who would later in the original Final Fantasy 7 save the world from Sephiroth and Shinra themselves. What do you think? did Zack live his life with honor? but more importantly I would wish that you answer Zacks question at the end "Would you say, I became a hero?" Years later after the planets crisis, Cloud would return to the spot where Zack died with his adopted son Densil. Yellow flowers now bloom in that perticular place. Densil askes, "is this somebodys grave?" Cloud responds, "No... this is where a hero began his jouney." If you actually read all of this, and watched all of the videoes and understood it's symbolisim then I have the utmost respect to you, I understand that video games are ment to be played not watched or read. But the story of this game is outstanding and changed my life, it's what taught me the importance of honor I can only hope that it can do the same for others now. Thank you and tell me what you think of all this in the comments. Category:Blog posts